The United States removed a senior aide to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from its sanctions list, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s spokesperson said Tuesday.
Antal Rogan, a high-ranking official in Orbán’s cabinet, was sanctioned by the former U.S. administration in January for corruption, with the Treasury accusing him of “orchestrated schemes designed to control several strategic sectors of the Hungarian economy.”
The profits from his alleged misconduct were funneled “to himself and to reward loyalists from his political party,” the Treasury said at the time about the Fidesz politician.
But the American penalties against him were “inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy interests,” Rubio’s spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the secretary of state had spoken with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to inform him the measures had been dropped.
The two top diplomats also spoke about “ways to strengthen U.S.-Hungary alignment on critical issues and opportunities for economic cooperation,” according to a readout of their call.
Orbán, from the hard-right Fidesz party, was the first European leader to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and is a vocal ally of the Republican.
Trump, in turn, hosted the Hungarian prime minister at the White House in 2019 and at his palatial Florida resort last year, and has invoked Orbán as a model ruler at rallies, calling him “one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world.”
Ties between Hungary and the U.S. were rocky under former President Joe Biden, who sharply criticized Budapest’s democratic backsliding and accused Orbán of “looking for dictatorship,” triggering a furious response.
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